1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for deep-frying a food product, and in particular, to an improved method and apparatus for deep-frying corn masa chips commonly known as tortilla chips or nacho chips.
2. Background
Various food products are deep-fried to make the product crispy. In addition, deep-frying adds flavor to the product. Tortilla chips are formed by cutting thin sheets of corn masa into generally triangular pieces and deep-frying these pieces to form crisp tortilla chips. Commonly, these pieces are manually moved during the deep-frying by a whisk. This procedure, however, does not consistently provide tortilla chips of uniform quality. Some chips may not be completely fried and many often fail to achieve the desired appearance. A substantial number of chips must be discarded in order to provide the restaurant patrons with properly cooked chips having the appropriate appearance. As a result, the current technique for making freshly prepared tortilla chips results in a substantial wastage of both corn masa and labor.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for deep-frying tortilla chips on site in a restaurant so that the resulting freshly made chips have a consistently uniform high quality, both in terms of being uniformly cooked and having sufficient curls to form a chip functionally useful for holding dipped food and also aesthetically pleasing to the restaurant patrons.
The apparatus constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a novel chip fry lid that is placed over the pieces of tortilla bread which are then deep-fried. As described below, the lid offers several significant advantages. The underside of the lid is advantageously formed from lengths of wire shaped to provide a series of downward projections or posts that are formed by two juxtaposed wires shaped to have a series of repeating prongs. The preferred embodiment includes prongs of two different lengths which are so located that each longer projection is proximate the shorter projection. As a result, the underside of the lid has a generally undulating appearance.
The chip fry lid of the preferred embodiment of the invention further advantageously includes: (i) a pair of hooks at one end which serve as a hinge to facilitate rotational movement of the lid about a fixed axis while the chips are agitated and contacted by the downward projections in the lid while deep-frying; (ii) a rear frame opposite the hooks to prevent chips from escaping during deep-frying; and (iii) a handle for rotating the handle through an arc about the hinge axis.
A significant feature of the preferred embodiment is that, unlike the current methods of chip-making, the method and apparatus provided by this invention provide for producing chips of consistent high quality, with little or no wastage. Further, the method employed for making the chips is quickly learned by any member of the restaurant staff. A correlative advantage is that the high quality chip product does not vary from worker to worker, so that freshly made tortilla chips of high quality can be prepared by any of the restaurant staff.